Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Under what conditions do alkyl azides rearrange to imines?

Loptr - 15-12-2018 at 19:43

Under what conditions do alkyl azides rearrange to imines? I am having some difficulty finding details on this one. I know that reactions involving free HN3 are unsavory, but I was unaware of its reaction with alkenes, and was also wondering if it can be radicalized to affect to affect anti-Markovnikov addition using light or peroxide, similar to how addition with HX is affected.

http://organicreactions.org/index.php?title=Schmidt_reaction...
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https://www.organic-chemistry.org/namedreactions/schmidt-rea...
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Nakhimov - 18-12-2018 at 08:33

Here is a recent paper with some in-situ reactions of alkyl azides in the presence of copper catalysts: https://www.thieme.de/statics/bilder/thieme/final/de/bilder/...

Additionally, here's a proposed mechanism from the Hu paper:
http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/advances/3/8/e1700826...

(doi:10.1126/sciadv.1700826)

[Edited on 12-18-2018 by Nakhimov]

Loptr - 20-12-2018 at 05:01

Here is a pretty interesting overview of the Schmidt reaction.

Attachment: wrobleski2012.pdf (2.9MB)
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Loptr - 20-12-2018 at 13:44

What bothers me about this is how weak of an acid HN3 is. How would it easily add to an alkene?